Graves Mountain is a unique
geological formation located in Lincoln County, Georgia.
Beginning in the 1920s, Tiffany’s mined the site for rutile, a
substance used for polishing diamonds. At some point thereafter,
Aluminum Silicates, Inc. began mining the site for kyanite, a mineral
used to make heat-resistant products. Sometime in the mid-1960s,
Combustion Chemicals, Inc.was formed to purchase the site and conduct
kyanite mining operations. Combustion Chemicals was a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Combustion Engineering Inc. Combustion
Chemicals conducted mining operations until 1984, when it sold the
property to Pasco Mining Company. Pasco operated the mine site
until November 1, 1986, at which time the facility and all
environmental responsibilities reverted back to Combustion Chemicals by
their previous purchase agreement. Combustion Chemicals never
resumed mining operations. In 1990, it was merged into Combustion
Engineering Inc. In 1990 C-E became a wholly owned subsidiary of
Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), a Swiss-Swedish multinational conglomerate
based in Zurich and one of the largest electrical engineering companies
in the world. The merged company spent 1.6+ million dollars in
reclimation cost through the late 1990's. Combustion Engineering
was also sued by 16 surronding property owners for acid run off in 1991.
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